Page:Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury 1915.pdf/37

 them. When ripe, the leaves were stripped from the cobs, which were collected and dried. A dam was then made in a running stream, and the cobs left soaking in the water for three weeks. They were then taken out blackened and emitting a stench so vile and powerful that it could be detected a mile away. The cobs were again dried, and ultimately pounded into a kind of flour between stones or pieces of hard wood. This constituted a staple diet for the Maoris, and they were very fond of it, as they were also of wheat and sugar boiled together, to which they gave the name of “Lilipu.”

Eels either sun-dried or boiled were much in request, and putrid flesh had no horrors for them, as evidenced in the incident previously mentioned of the buried cow.

The small native birds in the bush were much relished by the old-time Maoris, and they killed them very ingeniously. Having made a screen with ferns and leaves they placed a stick horizontally on a perch, and then with a light switch in their hand they imitated the calls of different birds, especially the tui, and brought them up to the perch; then with a quick movement of the wrist they knocked the birds over with their